let the fire fall in the footsteps we leave painted on the ground we'll watch the stars come crashing down upon our heads like a maddening crown over we go, diving for pearls over we go, from the edge of the world this is the song from the edge of the world

Thanksgiving was held at the Graves abode in Fremont. Veronica and i had picked up some salami and cheese the night before, and arrived with these hors d'oeuvres just before 3pm. We had also brought the overjoyed and overstimulated Tara, who spent her holiday fervently exploring the house and having several standoffs with my parents' cats Milenko and Petri. My pregnant sis Emily was in town for the holiday, and welcomed us along with my aunt Cathy and sister Hilary and boyfriend Jeff. I'd taken a claritin to prevent kitty-induced allergies, but unlike previous medicated visits this time the pill merely slowed the onset of symptoms. However, it allowed me to get through dinner, dessert, and coffee before descending into a sneezing, wheezing mess. We returned home at about 9, and i relaxed on the couch in my post-gorging glory while V worked on her Viva Piñata garden. She's seized upon this spiritual successor to Animal Crossing (at least until the Wii version comes out next year), and lately has been spending her free time mating squazzils, shooing sour sherbats, and keeping her plot of soil well groomed and condusive to her piñata friends. Yee ha.

Following Thanksgiving, i had a free Friday while Veronica went to work. I arose after she left at 9:30am, and got in an hour or so with Gears of War. As i predicted, more time with this acclaimed 360 title has improved my opinion of it. By 11am i had developed an appreciation for the dash, cover, strafe, and flank gameplay mechanics. Despite my increasing affection, i must admit that i still stink something awful, a state of affairs that has delayed my exploration of online multiplayer. By late morning the niggling thoughts that i should clean the house took hold, and i spent the rest of my day performing a variety of domestic chores: tidying the living room, cleaning out the drawers under the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom, reordering the cabinets in the laundry room, and on and on. Veronica got home at 4:30pm and assisted for a bit, before absconding with my sisters and mom for a spa treatment. I called my dad for dinner, but he was pooped from turkey day and opted to stay at home. I had visions of a big pastrami sub from Togo's for dinner, but was thwarted by their holiday hours, and had to settle for Carl's Jr. I got in some further cleaning in the early evening, washing all the towels, linens, and blankets and a load of clothes for my impending trip, then took a long overdue shower and put on some pj's and settled into a cup of tropical green tea and the History Channel. V returned to myself and a supremely bored Tara around 9:30pm, and we whiled away the rest of the night watching Ugly Betty (a very worthwhile drama amidst the usual network TV dreck), the Soup (a pop culture wrap-up show that's head and shoulders above the awful one-liners of the touted Best Week Ever). I headed to bed at 12:30am while V returned to Viva Piñata land until 2am.

I'm watching a repeat of the Hugh Laurie/Beck SNL at the moment, and must say i quite like Beck's recent single "Nausea". I'm by no means a Beck fan, but this number has a nice groove. But i have to ask ... did Beck install a Bez-esque dancer in his posse?

V and i got a relatively early start on our Saturday, leaving the house at 10am for breakfast at the Palo Alto Creamery followed by a bit of post-Thanksgiving shopping at Bloomie's and Macy's in the Stanford Shopping Center. We'd toyed with the idea of buying ourselves an advance Christmas present, a 42" Samsung DLP TV, at Circuit City on Friday morning (it was going on sale for $799), but were dissuaded after inspecting the product on Wednesday night. Thank god ... that spared me from getting up at 4am to wait in line with all the other bargain hunters. After our brief consumer foray, V got me to SFO at 12:30pm, plenty of time before my 1:55 flight to Chicago and the RSNA meeting.

My flight to Chicago was one of the more unpleasant in recent memory. For some reason American wouldn't assign me a seat until i got to the gate, and once there (45 minutes before departure) i got an aisle seat in the last row of the plane. Apart from removing me from my preferred spot at the window (so i don't have to get up whenever one of my rowmates wants to get up), in this plane the last row window looked out on the lovely sight of the rear engine. A bit noisy, to say the least. In addition i was across from the main cabin lavatories, one of which broke during the flight. This created a huge line for the bathroom, and moreover generated enough amusement for the passengers that it seemed everyone in the last six rows was looking over their headrest at the crowd. And i just wanted to listen to my iPod and sleep. It seemed one of the lavatory doors also malfunctioned, which i surmised by the occasional banging and the appearance of a stewardess bearing several crowbar-looking tools. In the meantime, i did manage to finish reading the most recent, Halo 3-centric issue of EGM, catch a few z's, and read an interesting paper on stochastic modeling and simulation techniques for radiation oncology.

V asked me what i was thankful for this Thanksgiving, and i had a hard time formulating a response. I've been in a bit of a funk for the last month or two, culminating from both personal and professional malaise. I suppose 'tis the season to take personal stock and reflect on how my life really measures up this holiday season. And i must say i'm in a good place. Got Veronica and Tara, an ever-improving house that is steadily appreciating (we looked at an absolute dump down the street last week that's on the market for $100k more than we paid for our house), and i'm living in my favorite place in the world, the beautiful San Francisco bay area. I've got some things i need to improve ... i'm horrible about keeping in touch with the people i care about, and i need to be more proactive about speaking out for myself. But i lead a charmed life, and should be ashamed to moan and groan.

Was i supposed to wait until New Year's to have my personal moment? Aw, f@$# it.

Tara and video games ruled V and my weekend. I learned of a new Xbox 360 game a few days ago, an Animal Crossing-esque challenge of raising piñatas in your garden aptly titled Viva Piñata. Naturally her curiosity was piqued, so on Saturday after dinner at Harry's Hofbrau we popped into Gamestop at Sequoia Station to inquire. Turns out they'd sold their last copy a scant half hour earlier. I then asked about the availability of Rainbow Six: Vegas, which i was informed wasn't out until November 30. The friendly clerk then commented how nice it was to field questions that didn't involve the Playstation 3 or the Wii, the latter of which was slated for release Sunday morning. We hightailed it over to Best Buy before closing, and were amazed to find a small collection of tents and sleeping bags containing Nintendo diehards awaiting the next morning's Wii launch. We ventured inside, and were able to wrangle a salesperson away from a few Nintendo fanboys long enough to learn BB was also sold out of Viva Piñata. Dammit. On our way out, i commented that we should try one of Brian Posehn's jokes.

Being a nerd, i know how to make other nerds mad, and that's getting their obsession wrong. The thing they've wasted their lives obsessing over. So these guys are there for the Star Wars movie, and i swear i did this, i drove by and i went "Star Trek sucks! Picard's a fag! Beam me up, Scottie!" And i swear one of the nerds looked a lot like me, but fatter, he went to the curb and went "It's Star Wars! Get it right! It's George Lucas's vision!" And i'm sitting in my car going "Ha ha, nerds!" And i've got a stack of comic books in the passenger seat, and the X-Files season 5 DVD. "Those guys are nerds, but i'm going home to see what Scully and Mulder got into this season!"

I was very tempted to do the same here, substituting "Atari sucks!" for the Posehn exclamation. That had Veronica in stitches. Despite my curiosity over how that would rile up the Nintendo disciples, we didn't go through with our plan. Subsequent trips to Toys R' Us and Target had similar results in terms of Viva Piñata availability and anxious Wii customers. V was therefore forced to postpone her piñata gardening until the morrow, when we secured a copy at a Toys R' Us in Redwood City.

The last song on (former?) Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker's new solo album is 34 minutes long. I'm two minutes in now and am genuinely freaked out that there's more than a half hour of this left.

Tara had a weekend about town, going to the dog park on both Saturday and Sunday and also getting a walk in a park near Hillsdale Mall on Sunday afternoon. She loves riding in the car and integrates well with Veronica and my jaunts around the peninsula. We were witness to some drama at the dog park on Saturday afternoon. We had noticed a guy bring in his pomeranian, principally because he was wearing jeans and a blazer and was looking decidedly metrosexual at the jeans-and-sweats-dominated dog park. A half hour or so after he arrived, his dog was the victim of a fight in which a horde of small dogs descended upon her, apparently after an initial attack by a Jack Russell terrier. The owner of the terrier waded in and literally threw his dog away from the fray, an act i found a bit disconcerting. The metrosexual pomeranian owner (someone whom Veronica referred to as "thin Ted", to my chagrin) picked up his dog and headed for the exit. As he was leaving, he apparently said something to the terrier owner along the lines of "you should get your dog trained before you bring it to the dog park". The fuse was lit, and the scene devolved until the two dog owners were shouting obscenities at each other. I would tend to side with thin Ted, as the other guy was bizarrely hostile, self-righteous, and argumentative. I was amused by thin Ted's parting shot ... as he was leaving, the terrier owner was reprimanding his dog in the park for some other offense, shouting "Carl! Carl! CARL!". Thin Ted drove off mocking this, with a perfectly delivered "Carrrrrl! CCCCAAAARRL!".

Phew ... Jarvis's last track is a four minute song, 28 minutes of silence, and a two minute hidden song. Thank god.

I'm looking forward to that lovely Thursday holiday celebrating gluttony, which will be celebrated at my parents' house in Fremont with my sisters and aunt. My pregnant sis Em is in town from Dallas, and will be having a girls-evening-out with Hilary, Veronica, and mom at a spa in Palo Alto on Friday. That'll give me a chance to work off Thursday's turkey and stuffing with a hard day of Gears of War, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and the slightly more physical Guitar Hero II. Then Saturday i fly off to Chicago for my first taste of the RSNA mega-conference. It's the largest medical meeting in the world, with over 70,000 attendees annually. McCormick Place in Chicago is the only venue large enough to hold it, so it's always held there the week after Thanksgiving. The meeting will be an interesting affair, balanced between science and networking. I submitted an entry for RSNA's "25 top research questions for radiology" contest, which was selected. So i get an extra ribbon to wear on my conference badge, and will attend the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon. I'll also be attending the RSNA Molecular Imaging Committee meeting, a chance to touch base with former mentor Ralph Weissleder. Finally, i'm also very keen to spend some time with old friend Bill W, now a resident of Naperville outside Chicago. We're planning a dinner at his house on Sunday, hopefully accompanied by a showing of that day's top-of-the-table encounter between Chelsea and Manchester United.

little power monger, sleep tonight the city lights up like a dirty dime i hope that this letter finds you crying it would feel so good to see you cry under this same lifeless sky how is it i can find no peace? well i hope that someday we meet both broken we could kneel right down and kiss your feet wherever you are under the stars or under the influence of the cars and the neon lights don't shine through your frigid light though you're a total mess can you admit that yet? little power monger, sleep tonight the city lights up like a dirty dime i hope that someday we meet both broken it would feel so good to see you

Been awol for a bit. Mostly work-related ... i've been swamped with projects old and new both during and since my trip to Philadelphia. Let's start there.

ASTRO was overall a good experience, between several interesting sessions on hypoxia and functional imaging and multiple dinners with friends. I spent a bit of time with the residents from my department, having a pleasant dinner at Pif in south Philly on Sunday night then a late meal at Brasserie Perrier after the Stanford reception on Monday evening. I was unaware of the expense and difficulty of obtaining a liquor license in Philadelphia, and was a bit surprised when we found Pif didn't serve wine. Despite their BYOB policy, being Sunday night all the liquor stores were closed. Luckily the chef sent us on a somewhat clandestine operation to buy wine from a restaurant down the street, which proved successful. I ran into my old UCB/UCSF bioengineering chum Ken Wong at a vendor exhibit on Monday, so we caught up over a gargantuan Cuban supper at Alma de Cuba on Tuesday night. I also got to hang a bit with former Stanford RadOnc buddies Todd and Brian, who've both moved on to different climes. Last but not least, my final tally of Philly delicacies: three cheesesteaks (Geno's, Rick's, and some generic place in the airport), one roast beef sandwich (Dinic's), and two hoagies (a fantastic proscuitto one from Carmen's in the Reading Terminal Market, and a passable salami hoagie from a stand in 30th Street Station).

By Wednesday the meeting had shifted to topics that didn't catch my interest, so i took the opportunity to Amtrak an hour and a half north to Penn Station in New York. I planned on spending the afternoon wandering around Manhattan shopping and taking in the ambiance, followed by dinner and drinks with old friend Rudha before catching the late train back to Philly. However, i chose the one day during my east coast jaunt when the skies decided to open up and dump a few inches of rain on me. I walked through Times Square for a bit, becoming completely drenched in spite of the faulty $10 umbrella i bought in the Philadelphia train station. I finally opted to give up on my wandering and hole up in a Starbucks on Canal St. to read and sip hot coffee. I used my day Metrocard to head up to 5th Ave. and Rudha's office around 4pm, and wandered around the posh shopping area. I spotted a Niketown and decided to buy a hat, considering my umbrella was leaking all over my head. In addition to a US soccer ball cap, i also found a sweet hooded Barcelona sweatshirt on sale, and decided to purchase a slick green Mexico track top. I was a bit amazed that they didn't have any Barcelona replica kits for sale ... only blue practice jerseys, no trademark blue and burgundy striped tops. More Arsenal and Manchester United gear than you could shake a stick at, though. When Roo got off work at 5:15pm, we met up and headed into Tiffany's to buy Veronica a bracelet (it was her birthday, after all) using Rudha's employee discount. We thereafter met up with Becca and Aimee for dinner at Burger Haven and drinks at an Irish pub around the corner from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. I had a great time and was more than a little sad to say goodbye to my old Allston chums after a few hours catching up.

My travels afforded me an opportunity to finish Truman Capote's brilliant In Cold Blood. On the surface a straightforward true crime tale of a gruesome quadruple homicide, Capote weaves the bittersweet story of the victims (bittersweet even without consideration of their unfortunate and sudden end) as well as the story of two young men so disenchanted with the American dream that their frustration boils over in an act of unbelievable sadism. I was chilled to the bone when i read the final few pages on my flight home, a haunting denouement involving the chief detective and a childhood friend of one of the victims.

While traveling i also spent some time getting into my newly purchased copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. It's not bad ... the plot is a bit ridiculous, but (for better or worse) it's Grand Theft Auto. Same gameplay, same sense of freedom, etc etc. The next full GTA on the PS3 and/or Xbox 360 will hopefully make an aesthetic and gameplay leap commensurate with graduation to next-gen consoles. After returning to California, i picked up a copy of the new 360 killer app Gears of War. I've only spent an hour or so with it so far, but i'm not really blown away. For one thing, i can't figure out the mechanics of combat. I think i'm doing a reasonable job taking cover and using my squad, but it seems regardless of my actions the enemy never fails to mow me down. Hrm. I'm eager to complete Splinter Cell: Double Agent, so GoW (that Gears of War, not the similarly acronymed God of War) may get shelved temporarily. However, the game that's really captured my attention since i returned from Philly has been Guitar Hero II. An excellent soundtrack, which as in its predecessor manages to suck you in despite any stylistic complaints you may have (Veronica's favorite song in the original was "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead, for christ's sake). The difficulty has been ramped up in the sequel, but it's a welcome challenge. Watching my fingers melt trying to play Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized" is a kick. What really pushes the new version over the top is the addition of cooperative play, having one person shred the lead guitar while another provides rhythm or bass. V and i gave it a whirl and had a kickass time. Similar to GTA, GH has hit a home run with a sequel that maintains the basic elements of the original but offers interesting new functionality.

I flew home from Philly on Thursday, arriving at SFO around 5pm and hitching a ride home from Vroo. The Tara dog was of course overjoyed to see me. She's turning into a mischievous little scamp these days. The other day i came home from work and was curious why a stack of photos i'd retrieved from old memorabilia and placed on the coffee table were now on the floor. I suspected the dog, a hypothesis that was confirmed when i noticed a broken pint glass elsewhere on the table. It seems Tara hopped up on the coffee table to drink out of a glass containing a drop or two of orange juice. Oooookkkaaaaaaaay ...

After a day catching up on affairs at Stanford, i returned home for a weekend of relaxation. This included dinner with colleagues Frank and Jennifer on Saturday night, followed by a showing of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan at the new Century theater in downtown Redwood City on Saturday night. I love Borat, but was a bit concerned that the shtick wouldn't last for a full 90 minute film. I was wrong ... the movie had me rolling in the aisles in parts. Particularly the infamous naked wrestling scene, but also the encounter between Borat and his producer and a kindly old Jewish couple. I think the film mocks intolerance, as highlighted by Borat's programmed negative views of Jews and homosexuals with which he has zero actual experience. But that underlying message won't pacify the hordes of conservatives who are calling for Sacha Baron Cohen's head, denouncing his film as a cheap attack on Kazakhstan and middle America.

Sure i want a PlayStation 3, but there's no way i'm going to wade through the masses to pay $600 for one at launch. There was something on the news this morning about one being sold for $20k on eBay. People are nuts. I'm a video game nut ... just not a junkie apparently. V wants a Wii so we may be trying to scare up one of those soon, but luckily Nintendo is supplying 4 million of those at launch, as opposed to Sony's 400,000 PS3's.

Somehow the organizers of the World Music Awards convinced the titular hero from V for Vendetta to perform. How novel ... i thought he was dead.

Random coding notes: i've more fully implemented the location tracking feature of my mp3 listening statistics, so you'll see little work, home, or iPod icons next to any played information. I've also fixed some idiosyncrasies of my search utilities for the journal, concerts, reviews, and mp3s. Carry on.

Twice in the past two weeks have i tried to watch the Passion of the Christ. Both times i set my tivo to record it, as unlike most new movies on cable it's only showing once a week or so (gee, wonder why?). The first time i tivoed it the film started ten minutes before tivo said it would, meaning i missed the beginning. I deleted this incomplete recording and decided to grab the showing this past Thursday. Because the Office and Ugly Betty were competing for tivo time in the living room, i decided to add tPotC to the bedroom tivo. And wouldn't you know it, come recording time the tivo choked and failed to properly change the channel, leaving me with two hours and fifteen minutes of blank screen. Someone somewhere doesn't want me to see this film.

This week has been a morass of work, from attempting to hammer out a research deal between Stanford and Philips, hosting our most recent MIPS seminar speaker Brian Ross, grading exam questions from my portion of the bioengineering molecular imaging course, presenting a talk at the MIPS small animal imaging workshop, and arriving at Stanford this morning at the ungodly hour of 7:30am to speak to the Radiation Oncology residents on imaging hypoxia. I'm looking forward to another restful weekend, punctuated by assorted home improvement. Maybe some hard time with Gears of War, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and Guitar Hero II as well. V and i are going to see Latina chanteuse Julieta Venegas on Sunday. Next week is abbreviated by Thanksgiving, after which i'll be flying off to Chicago to attend my first RSNA meeting. I'm looking forward to that both for professional reasons as well as the opportunity to spend some time with old friend and Pete drummer Bill W. and his wife Elizabeth.

well if you must just take, then i'm a piece of cake
that is what she said to me
and so i gave myself to her charity
well, at least that's how it seemed

Despite considerable deliberation between Veronica and i over potential Halloween costumes, our schemes didn't come to fruition. I'm horrible about planning costumes, apparently preferring the "piece something together from whatever's in the house at 7pm on Halloween night" method. We opted to attend Leisure in the city on Saturday the 28th, the unofficial celebratory date given that Halloween fell on a Tuesday. As costumes would be in effect (although not mandated), i put together a "self-effacing former hipster" look by wearing my old painted motorcycle jacket, and having V do my hair in the classic pouffy Ian McCulloch style. We met briefly with Phil and Naomi at Sparky's, mainly to check out their brilliant getups as the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend of Venture Bros. fame. We then reconnoitered with Gary at Leisure, who was getting sick of questions about Blind Melon due to his bumblebee costume. An evening of dancing and commenting on costumes ensued, ending at club close at 2am. Veronica was particularly creeped out by my spastic Ian Curtis-esque flailing during "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

V and i flirted with the idea of waiting in line to order a Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation3 last weekend, as preorders began selling at Toys R' Us on Sunday morning. However these thoughts were squashed when we drove by the San Mateo store and found the line already about 30 people long at 2:30am. We'll have to work our magic to secure the systems come release day. I'm about six levels into Splinter Cell: Double Agent on the 360, and have greatly enjoyed reacquainting myself with Sam Fisher's brand of stealth action. I also snagged a copy of the apparently out-of-print Winning Eleven 9 International for the PSP on eBay, as well as the newly released Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for PSP at the PlayStation Store at the Metreon.

Sunday evening we decided to try making posole after having a good batch prepared by V's friend and coworker Stephanie while visiting her and her beautiful baby girl in Hayward on Friday night. We obtained a recipe for the hominy and pork soup from one of Veronica's books, and i set about buying and preparing the chiles, spices, and meat. It took about two and a half hours to make, but produced a great hearty meal with just a bite of spiciness. The stockpot of soup i produced also fed us for the next three days.

I've had no luck with illness lately. I got a cold immediately after returning from Hawaii in August, then got knocked sideways by a flu and fever a few weeks later. Rising from bed on Monday, i felt that tell-tale sinus pressure swelling while in the shower, and lo and behold by evening had full-on nasal congestion. Luckily the sickness didn't progress to anything that kept me away from work, but given my notoriousness pansy-ness when it comes to illness i was no happy camper for the next few days. I picked up some Halloween candy on Tuesday afternoon to satiate any trick-or-treaters that evening, but oddly we got none. That was fine with me, as it meant i had a plethora of mini candy bars to consume. However, the Tara dog had other ideas. When i returned home from work on Wednesday evening, i found fifty or so empty Reese's peanut butter cup wrappers littered around her bed. The white she devil has learned that she can pull things off the counter and/or kitchen table if they're close enough to the edge, and to my shame i did leave the candy on the edge of the table. Dammit. I yelled at Tara and denied her dinner, which seemed to put her into a state of shame for the evening. The next night she vomited three times, worrying Veronica about a potentially serious late reaction to the chocolate. But Friday she was her usual peppy self once again. The scoundrel. Is it bad that my primary concern was that she ate all the Reese's cups, my favorite?

After seeing the fantastically creepy the Knife in the city last night, i awoke V at 6am to drive me to SFO, so i could catch my 8am flight to Philadelphia for my maiden visit to the annual American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) meeting. This is the showcase meeting for my department, which i've been slow in picking up on since my conversion from Radiology to Radiation Oncology. The schedule looks good, so hopefully i'll get some good insights out of my trip.

One perk of my visit that i've already enjoyed has been my first authentic Philly cheesesteak. Seven years after a stomach bug prevented me from having one during a trip here in 1999, i had a "provolone with" at the famous Geno's Steaks. Perhaps it was the buildup, but it was not as mind-blowing as i'd hoped. The absence of sweet peppers (apparently they were out this evening) contributed greatly to that opinion. Later this week i'll try a Pat's Steak, or perhaps one from Campo's Deli.

This is the first meeting i've been to where i just went to my admin Becky and told her to find me a flight and hotel. I plan on doing this much, much more often. As i gave her my request only three weeks before the meeting, she was only able to get me into a Holiday Inn Express, albeit just four blocks from the convention center. I'm contemplating working that tidbit into my responses during my poster presentation.

"Did you use Monte Carlo analysis to simulate collimator performance and dosimetry?"
"No, but i did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

My flight afforded me an opportunity to finally make some progress on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. I'm about a third of the way through, and have gotten real chills from its depiction of a grisly quadruple murder in a quiet Kansas farm town in 1959. I'm going to return to that after my post, as i try to work myself into slumber in a most likely futile attempt to adjust to the time change.

I like Philly. I liked it when i was here in 1999, and i liked it again tonight while walking the 1.5 miles from 13th and Walnut to Geno's on South 9th St. First off, there's that late fall bite in the air, something you just don't get in California. I love cold weather. I love bundling up in a hooded sweatshirt and jacket, and walking around while your face stings from the wind. Second, it's a wonderfully earthy, blue collar city. I got into a discussion about hockey with a few guys while waiting in line for my steak. I'm not talking blue collar like Pittsburgh, a town that just seems ground into the dirt, i'm talking about real people and real neighborhoods. My walk took me through a couple of nice areas, with the Saturday dinner crowd just rolling in. I was a bit worried about wandering through a city with a notorious reputation for crime, but as i'm told the area to avoid is that south of UPenn, a fair distance from my spot in midtown.

I'm trying to work out a trip up to NYC later this week to hang out with Roo for a bit. It's only a 1.5 hour train ride from Philly, and i should be able to get away from ASTRO as it trails to a close.

Anyone who obsesses over my listening habits as much as i do may have noticed that in my recently played list, you can now see where i listened to each track, be it home (), work (), or on my iPod (). My most recent mp3 programming exercise has been writing a script that grabs the genres and styles associated with each artist in my iTunes library from the impressive Allmusic database. I now have an Excel spreadsheet containing said data for over 2000 performers, which i will now slowly plow through to select more appropriate genres for my library. As i've said before, Joy Division as "modern rock" just will not do.

As i will still be on the east coast when Veronica's birthday arrives next Wednesday, i gave her presents on Thursday night before i departed. These focused on the theme of relaxation and included a red down throw blanket, and a gift whose time i figured had come, a foot spa from Brookstone. She loved both, and i'm eager to see how she enjoys the spa. She has another present on the way, which i hope will complete the relaxation trifecta.